Legends

Our initial inspiration for this 360 video project was all the overheard legends told and passed down over the years at U of I. We decided to focus on the most popular haunted locations on campus: the English Building, Lincoln Hall, the Main Stacks and the graveyard.

The English Building

The English building is home to our school’s most popular ghost story. Dating back to the early 1900s, the English building used to be called the Women’s building. There is some debate over whether it was just an education building for Home Sciences or if it also doubled as a dorm. Nevertheless, the Women’s building was home to the infamous basement pool which has now been converted into a computer lab and atrium. In this pool, a female student drowned and it is still unknown whether it was an accident, suicide, or murder. Whatever her fate, she is still there to this day. People report sudden cold spots, doors slamming, and hearing a faint cry. There are also reports of seeing a figure in one of the upper floors at night (Longo 2017).

Lincoln Hall

Right next door to the English building is Lincoln Hall. Lincoln Hall has yet to be verified but the legend goes that a teaching assistant threw themselves out of a third story window. Ever since, students report seeing a face peering out of the same third story window well after the building has closed for the night (Timmins, 2019).

The Main Stacks

In the Main Library on campus holds the main stacks. The mains stacks is ten floors of rare books and scientific journals, but also ghosts. The official University library website acknowledges its ghost problem. There are rumors that students have dies there while getting lost in the stacks and collapsing, only to be found too late (“LibGuides”, n.d). A student recounts a story he was told by a friend who had a personal experience. While studying for an exam in the main stacks, the student went to search for a book on the upper levels with the instructions of one of the main entrance librarians. Once on the upper levels, he was still having trouble locating the book. As he was going to head back, he noticed a librarian stamping books at a help desk he had not noticed on his way in. He asked her for help with finding the book, however she sent him to several stops before she expressed that the book was not on that floor and that he would have to return to the front entrance for a new book code to locate it. Once back at the front desk, the student expressed his anger and confusion about the help desk librarian to the ones working the entrance desk. Visibly, alarmed the front desk librarian revealed that the help desk had not been in service for years. When he described the librarian helping him, he described a worker who died in a crash on her way home from the library decades prior (“Any Haunted Occurrences”, n.d) .

Mount Hope Cemetery

Constructed in 1857, Mount Hope Cemetery is the oldest running cemetery in the Champaign-Urbana area. Greeting students at the entrance is a civil war era cannon to commemorate the soldiers buried there. Additionally, the cemetery is home to many names familiar to UIUC students. These names include: George Huff namesake of Huff Hall, George E. Marrow of the Marrow plots, Edmund James of the James Scholar program, William B. McKinley of the McKinley Health Center, and Jack Richmond of Richmond studios (Longo, 2017).

References:

Gulecyuz, B. (2019, December 10). Inside the lives of alumni: Tombstones tell stories of historic UI figures. Retrieved from https://dailyillini.com/features/2019/10/21/inside-the-lives-of-alumni-tombstones-tell-stories-of-historic-ui-figures/.

LibGuides: Haunted Libraries: University of Illinois Library Hauntings. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://guides.library.illinois.edu/c.php?g=348017&p=2345869.

Longo, J. (2017, October 19). A University Horror Story: campus ghost folklore. Retrieved from https://dailyillini.com/news/2016/10/31/university-horror-story-campus-ghost-folklore/.

r/UIUC – Any haunted occurrences on campus? (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.reddit.com/r/UIUC/comments/7q5nct/any_haunted_occurrences_on_campus/.

Timmins, M. (2018, June 29). Urban(a) Legends Illinois Alumni. Retrieved from https://illinoisalumni.org/2013/09/26/urbana-legends/.